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Singing in the rain

There has been a long collective sigh of relief at the two weeks of rain we’ve had this month, and as far as I’m concerned I’d be happy for the rain to continue all summer. Two years of drought, long hot summers that run till October and the first shock of snow, have been tough on a dairy culture that relies on plenty of rain and vigorous growth of knee-high wildflowers in the meadows.

I love sun, and the long summers have been wonderful, but the water running out in October is no fun especially when the snow comes in December along with plummeting temperatures and frozen pipes. Worse is the drastic drop in the hay crop which means that sheep and calves face autumn slaughter rather than winter starvation.

But this June, the wildflowers are knee-high, the fruit is swelling on the trees and veg springing up in the village gardens. It’s fabulously green, and long may the rain continue, especially if we get bursts of sun between showers. Watch out for loonies leaping between thunderbolts and ssinging in the downpours.

Magura means ‘little hill’, and here you can see it very clearly, from the southern end of the village looking towards Piatra Craiului

About Arabella McIntyre-Brown

I'm a writer from West Sussex is southern England, but after 30 years of urban life in London and Liverpool, I now live in a remote village 1,000 metres up in the Carpathian Mountains of Transylvania. My new book is published in November 2016: "Din Liverpool in Carpati: cum mi-am gasit fericirea în inima Transilvaniei"